The actors from Debrecen are also rehearsing for the opening ceremony of the Csokonai Forum
After the huge success of Tesla – Endless Energy, Total Strangers, The Pál Street Boys, Hotel Menthol and Game in the Castle, the Zenthe Ferenc Theater is closing this year’s series of summer performances with the comedy I Can’t Live Without Musical Music. As can be read in the announcement of the Csokonai Theatre: Balázs, the landowner of Nyír, is the non-fighting and failing figure of Móricz’s gentry world. He knows exactly how fun a Hungarian gentleman is! Balázs likes fun, gypsy music, and when the fun lasts three days at his door. His wife, Pólika, is a bit different, for her, grasshopper walks are all fun. And if a Karakan, stubborn wench gets mad at her master, she’ll probably run away and it will take half a village to reconcile her.
A light-hearted comedy of a light-hearted world in which nothing is irreversible, nothing is fatal. It holds up a mirror to a bygone age, a cheerful but light-hearted age of happy prosperity. The audience can see the play on August 23 from 8 p.m. directed by István Mikó.
The Csokonai Theater is also preparing for the next season with a series of rehearsals. The company plays the stage adaptation of Magda Szabó’s last novel, Für Elise, at the opening ceremony of the Csokonai Forum, and then continuously in the 2022/23 season. Although Für Elise is a story of childhood and youth trials, just like other Magda Szabó novels, it is full of love of life, joy of life and playfulness – said Anna Ráckevei, who is making her debut as a director.
With the direction, my desire is to capture the love of life, joy, and humor that radiated from Magda Szabó, which her oeuvre proclaims despite everything.
– he revealed in connection with the play. “I also tried to pay attention to what image of Magda Szabó Debrecen expects. I didn’t want to idealize the figure of the writer, nor did I want to shock the audience – even though the story has this possibility. But I don’t think theater should shock you. The job of the theater is to attract – shock can be included in that, but the measure must be to feel the taste of the given audience.” Anna Ráckevei also talks about the serious task she and dramaturg Beáta Adorján faced to find the dramatic focus in the epic work so that the stage production could be born from Für Elise.
After the family novel, Régimódi story, which often appears in her writings, the figure of the mother and the world of the cívis city at the turn of the century, and Ókút, which is made up of childhood mosaics, with Für Elise, the first part of the autobiographical novel planned for two parts, Magda Szabó goes back to the inexhaustible world of themes, childhood. A significant difference from previous similar works is the appearance of Cili, an orphan from Trianon who was adopted by his parents and fled from Zenta. His figure and story give new perspectives to the portrayal of the unusual family life known from Ókút and the world of Debrecen between the two world wars. The volume published on the occasion of Magda Szabó’s 85th birthday has become one of the most popular pieces of her oeuvre.
The young Magda Szabó is brought to life by Imelda Hajdu, the older one by Klári Varga. The audience will see Ibolya Mészáros as Cili, Edit Majzik as Magda’s mother, and Árpád Bakota as her father. Textor is played by Bence Pálóczi.
The set and costume designer of the production is Anna Kupás, the composer is Gergely Dargó, and the choreographer is Gábor Katona.
At the beginning of September, the theater presents the famous Romanian playwright Mihail Sebastian’s romantic comedy, The Nameless Star, directed by the theater’s artistic director, Ilya Bocharnikovsz. An incredible thing happens in a small town: a train stops at the railway station, which had never stopped at this place before. This seemingly insignificant event changes the entire town and the life of the town’s biggest dreamer. One of the protagonists of the play is the absent-minded music teacher, and the other is a lady of the world who has suddenly arrived in the small town.
The heroes of The Nameless Star are not Chekhovian figures, they do not want to break out of the rural town, but rather dream of changing the town. According to Ilya Bocsarnikovsz, this comedy is exciting because the many comic moments are interwoven with deep content.
The audience can see Zsolt Csata, Imelda Hajdu and János Mercs in the main roles of the play. The presentation of the production will take place on September 9 in the Latinovits Hall of the Csokonai Forum.
At the beginning of the season, the troupe will present Toldi, previously only known to the sixth graders of the school district for filming, a concert theater production based on the classic by János Arany. The director, Péter Valcz, who worked with the artists of Csokonai for the first time, boldly approached the text: “We cannot pretend that we understand every word and poetic image of Toldi. Yet this was Arany’s goal. And I wanted to help the work back to this goal with music, movement and rewriting in places.”
The actors of the production (Klári Varga, Zsuzsa Lehőcz, Richárd Kránicz, Dániel Takács and Bence Pálóczi) were selected based not only on their vocal skills, but also on their instrumental skills.
The composer couple Rita Darvas Benedek-Ádám and Péter Valcz thought about the musical material in a kind of primitive theater: “I would call it spontaneous experimentation,” says the director. “The starting point was the campfire. Someone is sitting by the fire with a guitar and telling a story. We only have five actors and countless instruments, but apart from that, there are no sets, no costumes. Just fantasy and play. The music is connected to the story as naturally as an accent or a posture. In many ways and in many styles. We match the style to the content: the bull part is hard metal, the wolf rock, the village preparation is naive canon – and the playing style changes accordingly. Genre sets no limits here. That is why the story of Toldi is told in this performance by a band, the Ilosvai Band.”